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Now that all the groups have had some time to record video, we are ready to work with the programs we will be using to create videos.

Audacity is the program we will use to edit our audio sound clips. MovieMaker is the program we will be using to create our movies once we have our audio ready to use.

If you only have video files so far, start with the MovieMaker section of this page. You will need to start organizing your movie, then decide on what extra audio you need. Do not complete your video until you are able to edit and insert all of the audio files you will be using!

AUDACITY

Start by opening Audacity from the Start Menu. To open your audio files, go to File -> Open. Select audio the file you would like to use. Once you have opened an audio file, your window will look like this:
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Editing A File

To play your file, click the green arrow. For your movie, you will want several sections of audio. Most of you probably recorded extra time, where you were not speaking. To cut out a section, highlight it by clicking at the beginning of the section you don't want and dragging your cursor to the end of the section you want to remove. It could look something like this:
highlighted section.png

To delete this section, press the control button ("CTRL") and X at the same time. You can undo your action by pressing CTRL and Z at the same time. If you want to move a section, you can copy it by pressing CTRL and C, then paste it in the area you want it with CTRL and V.
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Here is an example of what you screen would look like before you took out a section and after you cut it from the track ---->

If you want to use a section by itself as an audio track in your movie, copy the selection by using CTRL + C and paste it into a new audio track in Audacity. This can be done by going to File, then clicking New. Once you have a new window open, paste your selection. If this is all you want to use for your audio track, skip down to the section named "Saving Your File."

Putting Music With Your Audio

When you have an audio track that you want to add music to, open your music file by going to File > Open. The music file will open in a new Audacity window. To put it with your audio file, go back to your audio file page, and insert a new track by clicking Tracks > Add New > Stereo Track.
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Once you have a blank track, your window will look like this:
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Go back to your music file and copy the track by highlighting everything and using CTRL + C. Paste the music file in your new track by clicking at the very beginning of the track and using CTRL + V.

sound control.PNGTry listening to your file by hitting the green Play button at the top of the window. If your music is too loud, you can adjust the sound by dragging the slider next to the track (the slider with the - and + signs) to the left (for quieter) or to the right (for louder). If you listen to the track while you adjust the slider, you will be able to tell right away if the sound is changing the way you need it to. You will probably need to increase the sound of your audio track and decrease the sound of your music track.


If you need to convert your files to a usable format, try going to www.zamzar.com.



Saving Your File
When you close Audacity, you will be asked if you want to save your project. If you want to come back and edit your audio file later, save the whole project as "ELD Movie Project" so you know what to open later. Once you save your file as a project, you can edit it again later.

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If you are finished with your audio track, instead of saving the project, click on File > Export. Decide where you want your audio file to be saved (Your flash drive might be the best place). You need to change your type to MP3, instead of WAV. Then change you file name to whatever you need it to be. If it is the audio for your section about cell phones at school, you could name the file "Cell Phone Audio."

Once you click Save, your audio file is ready to use in MovieMaker.


If you would like to have more information about how to use other features of Audacity, click here.


MovieMaker

MovieMaker can be found in the Start menu under programs. Once you open MovieMaker, click on the button that says "Add Videos and Photos." Go to your flash drive and select your video file, then choose "Open." Do this again for each video file or picture you have for your project.

If your video file is a MOV file, you will need to convert it to a WMV file using this link. Download the program and then you will be able to use it to convert your files.

Splitting Files

If you have a video file that you want to cut into sections, hit the play button under the video, and pause the video where you want to split it. Choose "Edit" on the toolbar, then click "Split."
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Rearranging Files

To rearrange the pictures and video that you have inserted, you can click and drag them around until they are in the order you want.

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Title, Captions and Credits

To add a title to your movie, click "Title" under the "Home" tab. A black slide appears. Type the name of your movie on the top line, then press enter and type your name on the second line. Click "Play" to see your title page in action. To change the color, font, or other effects, go to "Format" under "Text Tools" and make any changes you want.

To add a credits page to your movie, click "Credits" under the "Home" tab. Type as much as you want, because the credits page will scroll. You can change any colors and effects on this page as well under the "Format" tab.

To add a caption to your picture, click on the picture you want to use, then chose "Caption." Captions are a good way to help describe your pictures while your audio is playing. You can move your caption anywhere on the page, change the color and font, and re-size it to fit your picture better.



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Inserting Audio

To insert the audio that you created in Audacity, from the "Home" tab, click on "Add Music." Choose the audio file that you want to work with and click "Open." Once your audio file opens, drag it to where you want your audio to start playing.

If you have other audio tracks, add each audio track to your movie and move it to where you want it to start. Your audio files should match up with the beginning of your pictures. Right now, your audio might overlap. That is okay. We can fix that by changing the timing.



Timing

Since you want your audio to line up with your images, you will need to adjust the timing. If you do not change the timing, your audio might play at the same time as your video interviews! All of your pictures are set to stay on the screen for 7 seconds.

Here is what my movie looks like right now:

audio timing start.png
My audio is much longer than my pictures! I am going to select a picture and change the length to 12.5 seconds by clicking on the first picture, going to "Edit" under "Video Tools," and change the duration to 12.5 seconds. I will also change my second and third pictures to 12.5 seconds. Now this is what my movie looks like:

audio timing later.png
This is much better! Now I can keep changing the timing for each picture until I fill all the time needed to cover my audio. If I only want one picture to show for 5 seconds, but the next to show for 25 seconds, that is okay. I just want to make sure that I fill enough space so that my audio does not overlap my video.

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You can also change the timing for your credits page. If your credits scroll by too quickly, go to "Format" and choose the arrow next to "Text duration." You can type in a length for your credits to scroll, or choose one of the options displayed in this picture.


















Saving and Finishing Your Movie

When you are finished with your movie, click the play button and play it through from the beginning one more time to make sure that everything is set up the way you want it to be. If you need to make changes, make those first. If you are finished, first save your project by clicking the blue tab next to "Home," then choosing "Save Project." Name your project the same as your movie title. This only saves your project - not your movie! You could reopen your project at any time and continue working on it. In order to save your movie, choose the blue tab, then click "Save Movie," and "Recommended for this Project." See below.
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In order to upload your video to YouTube, save the video as a Windows Media Video File, and change the file name to the title of your movie. When you click "Save," the computer will need several minutes to save the movie. This could take at least 20 minutes!

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YouTube

When your movie is finished saving, you are ready to upload it to Dropbox. This could take at least 20 minutes! Mrs. Ivie will upload your video to YouTube and send you a link. This is the link for your YouTube video. The video will be unlisted which means you can only access it with the link. You will not be able to search for your video on YouTube.

Congratulations! You made a movie!


To view the rubric for this project, click here